Global options reference

This page documents global configuration options that apply to Vector as a whole, such as data directories, timezone settings, logging configuration, and more.

For other top-level configuration options, see:

  • Pipeline Components - Configure sources, transforms, sinks, and enrichment tables
  • API - Configure Vector's observability API
  • Schema - Configure Vector's internal schema system
  • Secrets - Configure secrets management

acknowledgements

common optional object

Controls how acknowledgements are handled for all sinks by default.

See End-to-end Acknowledgements for more information on how Vector handles event acknowledgement.

acknowledgements.enabled

optional bool

Controls whether or not end-to-end acknowledgements are enabled.

When enabled for a sink, any source that supports end-to-end acknowledgements that is connected to that sink waits for events to be acknowledged by all connected sinks before acknowledging them at the source.

Enabling or disabling acknowledgements at the sink level takes precedence over any global acknowledgements configuration.

buffer_utilization_ewma_half_life_seconds

optional float

The half-life, in seconds, for the exponential weighted moving average (EWMA) of source and transform buffer utilization metrics.

This controls how quickly the *_buffer_utilization_mean gauges respond to new observations. Longer half-lives retain more of the previous value, leading to slower adjustments.

  • Lower values (< 1): Metrics update quickly but may be volatile
  • Default (5): Balanced between responsiveness and stability
  • Higher values (> 5): Smooth, stable metrics that update slowly

Adjust based on whether you need fast detection of buffer issues (lower) or want to see sustained trends without noise (higher).

Must be greater than 0.

data_dir

optional string

The directory used for persisting Vector state data.

This is the directory where Vector will store any state data, such as disk buffers, file checkpoints, and more.

Vector must have write permissions to this directory.

default: /var/lib/vector/

expire_metrics

optional object

If set, Vector will configure the internal metrics system to automatically remove all metrics that have not been updated in the given time.

If set to a negative value expiration is disabled.

Warning

Deprecated, please use expire_metrics_secs instead.

expire_metrics.nsecs

common optional uint
The fractional number of seconds after which to expire metrics.
Examples 
0

expire_metrics.secs

common optional uint
The whole number of seconds after which to expire metrics.
Examples 
60

expire_metrics_per_metric_set

optional [object]
This allows configuring different expiration intervals for different metric sets. By default this is empty and any metric not matched by one of these sets will use the global default value, defined using expire_metrics_secs.
Array object

expire_metrics_per_metric_set.expire_secs

required float

The amount of time, in seconds, that internal metrics will persist after having not been updated before they expire and are removed.

Set this to a value larger than your internal_metrics scrape interval (default 5 minutes) so that metrics live long enough to be emitted and captured.

Examples 
60

expire_metrics_per_metric_set.labels

optional object
Labels to apply this expiration to. Ignores labels if not defined.
expire_metrics_per_metric_set.labels.matchers
required [object]
List of matchers to check.
expire_metrics_per_metric_set.labels.type
required string enum
Metric label group matcher type.
Enum options
OptionDescription
allChecks that all of the provided matchers can be applied to given metric.
anyChecks that any of the provided matchers can be applied to given metric.

expire_metrics_per_metric_set.name

optional object
Metric name to apply this expiration to. Ignores metric name if not defined.
expire_metrics_per_metric_set.name.pattern
required string
Pattern to compare to.
Relevant when: type = "regex"
expire_metrics_per_metric_set.name.type
required string enum
Metric name matcher type.
Enum options
OptionDescription
exactOnly considers exact name matches.
regexCompares metric name to the provided pattern.
expire_metrics_per_metric_set.name.value
required string
The exact metric name.
Relevant when: type = "exact"

expire_metrics_secs

optional float

The amount of time, in seconds, that internal metrics will persist after having not been updated before they expire and are removed.

Set this to a value larger than your internal_metrics scrape interval (default 5 minutes) so metrics live long enough to be emitted and captured.

healthchecks

optional object
Healthcheck options.

healthchecks.enabled

optional bool

Whether or not healthchecks are enabled for all sinks.

Can be overridden on a per-sink basis.

default: true

healthchecks.require_healthy

optional bool

Whether or not to require a sink to report as being healthy during startup.

When enabled and a sink reports not being healthy, Vector will exit during start-up.

Can be alternatively set, and overridden by, the --require-healthy command-line flag.

default: false

latency_ewma_alpha

optional float

The alpha value for the exponential weighted moving average (EWMA) of transform latency metrics.

This controls how quickly the component_latency_mean_seconds gauge responds to new observations. Values closer to 1.0 retain more of the previous value, leading to slower adjustments. The default value of 0.9 is equivalent to a “half life” of 6-7 measurements.

Must be between 0 and 1 exclusively (0 < alpha < 1).

metrics_storage_refresh_period

optional float

The interval, in seconds, at which the internal metrics cache for VRL is refreshed. This must be set to be able to access metrics in VRL functions.

Higher values lead to stale metric values from get_vector_metric, find_vector_metrics, and aggregate_vector_metrics functions.

proxy

optional object

Proxy configuration.

Configure to proxy traffic through an HTTP(S) proxy when making external requests.

Similar to common proxy configuration convention, you can set different proxies to use based on the type of traffic being proxied. You can also set specific hosts that should not be proxied.

proxy.enabled

optional bool
Enables proxying support.
default: true

proxy.http

optional string

Proxy endpoint to use when proxying HTTP traffic.

Must be a valid URI string.

Examples 
"http://foo.bar:3128"

proxy.https

optional string

Proxy endpoint to use when proxying HTTPS traffic.

Must be a valid URI string.

Examples 
"http://foo.bar:3128"

proxy.no_proxy

optional [string]

A list of hosts to avoid proxying.

Multiple patterns are allowed:

PatternExample match
Domain namesexample.com matches requests to example.com
Wildcard domains.example.com matches requests to example.com and its subdomains
IP addresses127.0.0.1 matches requests to 127.0.0.1
CIDR blocks192.168.0.0/16 matches requests to any IP addresses in this range
Splat* matches all hosts

telemetry

optional object

Telemetry options.

Determines whether source and service tags should be emitted with the component_sent_* and component_received_* events.

telemetry.tags

optional object
Configures whether to emit certain tags
telemetry.tags.emit_service
optional bool
True if the service tag should be emitted in the component_received_* and component_sent_* telemetry.
default: false
telemetry.tags.emit_source
optional bool
True if the source tag should be emitted in the component_received_* and component_sent_* telemetry.
default: false

timezone

optional string

The name of the time zone to apply to timestamp conversions that do not contain an explicit time zone.

The time zone name may be any name in the TZ database or local to indicate system local time.

Note that in Vector/VRL all timestamps are represented in UTC.

Examples 
"local"
"America/New_York"
"EST5EDT"

wildcard_matching

optional string enum

Set wildcard matching mode for inputs

Setting this to “relaxed” allows configurations with wildcards that do not match any inputs to be accepted without causing an error.

Enum options string
OptionDescription
relaxedRelaxed matching (must match 0 or more inputs)
strictStrict matching (must match at least one existing input)
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